Bloodlines
by DreamonAlina
Summary: Ripples of Reality Spin off. Alexia Salvatore has been moving her entire life, but when her parents, Stefan and Juliet, announce that they're going to be staying in London until Lexi has finished her education, Lexi is thrilled. However, living in London begins to lose its thrill as Lexi starts learning impossible things about herself and the people around her. Full summary inside.
1. Moving Day

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I only own my OCs "Juliet Jordan Gilbert Salvatore", "Ivan Christos" and "Alexia Victoria Elena Salvatore", and any other characters I make up along the way! I own nothing but my own ideas.

 **Summary:** Alexia Victoria Elena Salvatore, the daughter of Stefan and Juliet Salvatore, has been moving her entire life with her family. But when her parents announce that they would be staying in London until Lexi finishes college, she's absolutely thrilled. But being in London hasn't been everything it's cracked up to be. Lexi begins finding out secrets about her family, the new friends she makes, and even secrets about _herself_ that she never dreamed possible.

 **Author's Note:** I have no idea what's gonna happen with this story but I think it's gonna be cute and fun! Besides, who doesn't want to read about Juliet and Stefan's daughter?

This story is a companion to my story "Ripples of Reality", however, you don't need to have read Ripples of Reality to understand what's happening. I'll be mentioning things from the story in _this_ story as the plots continue, but I do encourage you to read it to get a better understanding of the story.

P.S. Contains spoilers from seasons 1-6 of the Vampire Diaries.

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

I huffed as Dad put a box in my arms. "Why am I carrying this?" I groaned as I adjusted the box so that it wouldn't tip out of my arms.

"Because you're the kid," Dad replied as he picked up a rather large box with ease. Dad had always been strong, though. "Unpaid labour is the whole reason why your mother and I had you."

" _Stefan,_ " Mom slightly scolded as she passed by him, but she was supressing a grin.

"See, if you guys had more children, then at least the load would be lightened," I grumbled as I began walking up to our new house.

I don't even know what number it was. Of houses, I mean.

For practically my entire childhood I'd been moving around. My Dad's job required him to move a lot (something about setting up new business branches in new locations and then moving when another branch needed to be opened again). It was a bit cool, actually. I've lived all around the world. Granted, I couldn't remember all the _cool_ parts, but it was still cool to tell people that you've lived in Australia, Germany, Italy, and Romania all in a span of six years.

Our last place that we lived in was Idaho in America. We'd lived there for a maybe a year when Dad came home and announced he was being relocated again.

Mom didn't seem to have much of a problem with the constant moving. She told me once that she accepted Dad's job from the first day she met him, knowing that if they got married moving was going to be a part of the package.

It was only ever _me_ that had a problem with moving all the time. Just when I think I was starting to get comfortable, _bam_ , we were buying plane tickets.

It was easier when I was a kid because the whole thing seemed like an adventure, but as I got older, it got more irritating. Just when I was getting into the groove of school, making friends, developing crushes, we left. I think the longest time we'd ever spent anywhere was Romania when I was eleven. We lived there for at least three years and then we relocated to Switzerland.

I dropped the first box on to the ground as I heaved a sigh. The only thing I wasn't complaining about was the house. The new place my Dad's boss had sent him was London, and it was my first time ever to London. But it wasn't in the city, more of the country where Mom and Dad would commute to work. The house was really big, like the size of a mansion, and really olden time-y. My mind flashed back to what Mom said about the house on the plane: it used to be a hotel, and Dad got it because the owner of the hotel worked with Dad. It was their "summer home", but they were letting Dad use it for the time we would live here. To be honest, we were probably going to live here for a short time. I could already _see_ myself taking down pictures that weren't even up yet to pack away.

The good thing about it being an old hotel was that the rooms would be amazing (the building was kept up to date so it should be amazing) and the secret passageways that hopefully this place had. Other than that, what would the point have been?

"Move your butt," Dad said as he gently kicked the back of my legs. "I've brought in four boxes and you've brought in _one_."

" _Excuse me_ for daydreaming," I argued, but I went back outside to bring in more boxes.

The movers began bringing in our furniture, so I had move past them and avoid hitting them (or getting hit myself-that bruise from when I was ten took forever to go away).

It took about an hour or so to bring the furniture in, and then it took another half hour to bring in the rest of the boxes. We didn't have much (Mom always bought stuff when we moved to the place that she could sell back so we could travel light) but the stuff we _did_ have was all personal items. Clothes, pictures, books, and a bunch of other stuff.

"Lexi?" I heard, and I turned around to see Mom and Dad walking towards the door. "Your Dad and I are going to go pick up some dinner, do you want to come with us?"

I shook my head, gesturing to the boxes. "I'll just start unpacking."

"That's our girl," Dad smiled as he pointed at me. "Oh, and don't forget to call Matt! He said he wanted you to call him when you landed." And with that, the two of them walked out the door.

I turned back to the piles of boxing, blowing air out of my mouth as I eyed them. Why did I volunteer to stay and unpack again?

I shook the thought off as I leaned over and grabbed a rather large box. I grabbed the box cutter from off of the sofa and cut the box open. The label on the side read "photo albums" but Mom's reused boxes before that had nothing to do with the content inside. Once when I took all the boxes labeled my stuff to my room, I opened one to see Dad's old books.

But no, true to its label, it was photo albums. I pulled out one and began flipping through it.

It was definitely the one filled with my baby photos. It was photos from my first day in the hospital. My Mom was surrounded by my Dad, my Uncle Matt, my Uncle Damon (Dad's older brother), my Aunt Caroline and Uncle Ivan (Uncle Ivan was Mom's twin brother, Aunt Caroline was his wife and also Mom's best friend since they were kids) my Aunt Bonnie (Mom's other best friend), Uncle Tyler (Mom and Dad's friend, though I didn't see Uncle Tyler very often) and Grandpa Alaric (though he _hated_ when I called them that-he said it made him feel old). I took the picture out and flipped it around. In Dad's writing, the words "Alexia Victoria Elena's first day" was scrawled on the back.

Alexia Victoria Elena Salvatore. Could they have given me an even weirder name?

According to Mom and Dad, Alexia was Dad's best friend for many, many years, but she died a few years before I was born. My first middle name, Victoria, was what Uncle Matt picked. Vicki was his sister who had been attacked by an animal and _also_ died a few years back. And finally, my last middle name, Elena, was Mom's adoptive sister's name. Aunt Elena had gotten into a bad car accident and fell into a coma that Doctors said she wouldn't come out of. So, Mom and Uncle Jeremy (their brother) pulled the pull and let Aunt Elena die with a little grace. Apparently this happened just before Mom had gotten pregnant, and she wanted to honour Aunt Elena.

Most people would think that it was weird to be named after three dead people, but I chose to see it as those three people were so important to my parents that they named their only daughter after them.

You're probably wondering where Uncle Matt fits into the picture. Technically, Uncle Matt was my biological father. Mom and Dad were unable to concieve, so they asked Uncle Matt to be a sperm donor. Uncle Matt said yes, and nine months later, here I was.

Even though Uncle Matt signed away all parental rights to Mom and Dad when I was born, Mom and Dad still treated him as if he was my parent. What I mean by that was that every other weekend since I was born, I spent it with Uncle Matt. But when I was two, we started move and the cycle never stopped. Uncle Matt chose to stay in Mystic Falls (my birth town) and married my Aunt Sophie, and he had kids of his own. My (technical) half brother Aaron and (technical) half sister Rachel.

I started looking through other photo albums and smiled when I saw a picture of me and Uncle Klaus last year. Despite the moving around thing, there was one place that had been a constant for me: Uncle Klaus's home in New Orleans. Technically he wasn't my _real_ Uncle, but Mom was his best friend so he might as well have been. Mom and Dad blame him for the reason I was so "spoiled" as they liked to put it, but he insisted that since I was a princess, I should be treated like one.

Besides, Uncle Klaus wasn't the only person who'd spoiled me. According to Dad, Uncle Damon never put me down since the first time I was in his arms. He held me whenever Mom or Dad weren't and insisted on buying me everything my heart desired.

Aunt Caroline was the same way. Whenever I spent "Aunt Caroline" days with her (whenever I _did_ get to see her) she would take me shopping and we'd literally shop to our hearts content. Honestly, I think Uncle Ivan and Aunt Bonnie were the only ones that ever treated me normally when I was growing up, which was why I insisted I wasn't all _that_ spoiled. I was certainly better than Uncle Klaus's daughter Hope, who he would _literally_ give the world to if he could.

I started looking through Mom's old photo album from her high school days. Mom and Dad pretty much hadn't changed since their high school days ("We age like fine wine," Dad would joke. "MAC make up doesn't hurt either," Mom would add) but somehow, she was definitely more beautiful in high school. I know Mom lost her parents-my grandparents-when she was in high school, but in the pictures, it looked like she was trying to keep everyone's spirits up. Uncle Jeremy said that was just the kind of person that Mom _was_.

My fingers skimmed over a copy of Mom's favourite picture with her and Aunt Elena. It was just before Grandma and Grandpa died, and she and Aunt Elena had their arms wrapped around each other, smiling and laughing like nothing was wrong with the world. Truth be told, it was my favourite picture of Mom, too. Well, second favourite picture. My first favourite was of Mom and Dad. I know most kids made faces when they thought of their parents acting romantically, but I thought it was sweet. It'd been almost eighteen years and they _still_ looked at each other like they were first meeting.

I dropped the photo album to the ground as I went back to unpacking. Nostalgia was fun, but it could suck you in like a really good book, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but still.

By the time I had emptied a few boxes and the huge living room was starting to look like our living room in Idaho, Mom and Dad had come home with Chinese and paper plates.

"The _last_ thing I need to do on top of unpacking boxes is cleaning plates," Mom shivered. She was the _queen_ of hating to wash the dishes. She said that once she and Uncle Jeremy were washing the dishes and they were goofing around, which led to a broken plate and Mom getting her hand cut open. Every house we'd lived in had a dishwasher, but I was pretty sure that this place wouldn't.

After dinner, I made my way upstairs so that I could pick a room. It took a while, but I finally settled on one that had a beautiful view of the actual country. Most people preferred city and beach views, but the country view to me was just as good as it.

Hopefully this place would start to feel like home.

* * *

 **TBC...**

 **I am loving the feel of this story! It's gonna be AU (of course) as some stuff I have no idea (such as the future of Hayley and the baby and yadda yadda yadda-I'm just gonna make shit up) so heads up about that!**

 **Anyways! What do you guys think about this story? I think it'll have real promise!**

 **REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	2. First Day

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I only own my OC, and any other characters and plotline I make up along the way!

 **Author's Note:** For those of you asking questions, I've tried my best to answer but everything will be revealed eventually!

Now, Lexi's first day of school. What could go wrong?

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Mornings were my sworn enemy. I must get that from Mom, because Dad always had to drag her out of bed in the morning, and he sometimes had to recruit _me_ to get her out of bed.

However, today was the first day of school. Moving in the middle of the first semester (especially of your junior year) was always a pain, because that meant that everyone already knew each other and the chance of making new friends was long gone.

But, I was the Queen of Being the New Girl, so I just held my chin high as I changed into a pair of my best jeans, an opened blue checkered shirt over a black tank top with long brown boots (TV wasn't kidding when they said that London was a rainy, cold place-this time about two months ago I was soaking up the last of the summer sun), grabbed my backpack, and headed down the stairs.

I knew I'd be recruited to help finish the last of the packing after school, since when I went to bed, Mom and Dad didn't look anywhere _close_ to finishing. Also, they snuck out again last night. They didn't think I noticed, but I did. I just never said anything. Whatever they did whenever they snuck out was their business and to be honest I didn't want to know what kind of rendezvous my parents were up to.

The only reason that I was going to school the first day after moving in was because my parents didn't want me to fall behind in school-I was already drowning when we left Idaho, especially in math. I practically seethed when I had to leave my hot math tutor, which was probably the reason why I still sucked at math.

I felt kisses and pats as I walked in, and Dad was already getting ready for the day. Mom was the new history teacher at the school where I'd be attending (John Adams High School) and she apparently needed to be there early to talk with the principal so she left already.

Dad was just on his way out the door when I walked into the huge kitchen, but I smiled when I saw the pancakes that were left on the table. Mom and Dad (and when I say Mom and Dad I mean Dad because Mom couldn't cook to save her life) always made chocolate chip pancakes on my first day of school.

I gobbled up the pancakes and grabbed the lunch that they had apparently also prepacked for me and made my way to the door. Nobody owned cars in London and since I had absolutely no idea how to operate the train or the bus and Mom and Dad didn't leave any cab money, I had to walk to school. The first two mile walk to the city made me want to die (note to self: _beg_ Dad for a car, this walking crap was _insane_ ) but I felt a little better by the time I was back in the presence of a city. I had Googled and printed out a copy of the directions just before I went to bed so I felt a little safer, but of course, I wasn't looking where I was walking due to the fact that I was looking down at my map. So, I didn't see the bike that was barreling towards me until I felt it crash into me.

" _Ow_!" I hissed as I fell backwards and there was a crash next to me as the person fell off of their bike.

The person was quick to scramble up, though. "I'm so sorry!" A female voice said. "Are you hurt?"

 _No shit, I'm hurt, I was run over by a bike!_ was what I wanted to say, but because Dad said that one of the things that he loved the most about Mom was her compassion for everyone and I wanted to be exactly like my Mom when I was older (God, I was such a little Mommy's girl-but could you blame me? My Mom was practically my best friend) I shook it off and grabbed the girl's hand. "I'm fine. It was totally my fault, I should have been watching where I was going."

"Are you lost?" the girl asked. "Where do you need to go?"

"John Adams High School," I answered, showing her the map, but she waved it away.

"Just follow me. I was heading there anyways," She smiled, her impossibly blonde hair framing her heart shaped face. "I go to school there. I'm Jenna, by the way. Jenna Posen."

She stuck her hand out, and I tenatively grabbed it. "Lexi. Lexi Salvatore."

"Are you new here? I've never seen you around before," Jenna asked as she picked up her bike. She started walking past me and it took me a second before I realized I was supposed to follow her and scrambled after her.

"Uh, yeah," I answered when I fell into stride with her. "My parents and I just moved here. We're living at the Stone's residence, about two miles away from here."

Jenna shook her head. "I don't know where that is, but maybe I could see it sometime."

My heart rose at the thought of a new friend.

"Are you nervous about school?" Jenna asked.

I shook my head a little. "I'm used to moving around because of my Dad's job. I like to think of myself as the Queen of Being the New Girl."

"I know how you feel, by the way," Jenna said. "I'm new, too."

"Really?" I asked. "How new?"

"Well, not as new as you," Jenna allowed. "I started in the middle of sophmore year. John Adams isn't the worst place to be."

"With the amount of schools I've been to, I'm sure it'll be great," I said sarcastically as we reached the front of the school. There weren't a lot of people, and I was grateful for that.

I waited for Jenna to put her bike away and afterwards she showed me the way to the office where I'd pick up my class schedule and my new locker number. She also accompanied me to said locker, which turned out to be right next to hers. I put some stuff in there and grabbed my schedule, shoving it towards her. "Any idea where any of these rooms are?"

Jenna frowned as she studied the names. "You have Chemistry first period, we have the same English second period, third period is Math, fourth period is lunch, fifth period is History, which you also have with me, and last period is PE, which is also with me. I can show you to your Chem room, if you want."

"Ugh, PE?" I groaned, though the thought of Jenna being with me made me feel a little better about it. "How annoying."

"At least it's not co-ed," Jenna pointed out as she handed me my schedule back. "And at least it's last period so you can go straight home afterwards and people don't smell your sweat."

"You're very blunt, has anyone ever told you that?" I asked as I started following Jenna.

"My parents say it's one of my best qualities," Jenna laughed, and I couldn't help but laugh too.

Maybe today wouldn't be so bad.

* * *

Of course, after I thought that, my day went downhill.

It all started in Chemistry. After Jenna dropped me off, I had forgotten I knew absolutely no one in the school, and everyone already had lab partners, given the fact that I had transferred well into first semester.

I stood awkwardly by the teacher's desk (mainly because I had to give him some sheets but mostly because I had no idea where else to go) as students began piling in, all laughing and talking like nothing was wrong. A few of them took notice of a weird girl standing at the front of the room, but most of them didn't even spare me a glance. Good. This was normal, New Girl behaviour.

Finally the teacher, Mr. Brown, strolled in with a mug of coffee in his hands. He was a tall teacher and looked a little older than my Dad. "Ah, you must be Ms. Salvatore?"

"Yeah, I'm Lexi," I said in a bored tone. I'd been through this routine so many times I couldn't even count on two hands. I handed Mr. Brown my papers, and he handed me a textbook before pointing behind me. "You may take a seat next to Mr. Mercer. He'll be your lab partner for the rest of the semester."

I thought it was a little odd that they actually _had_ an empty seat in the class (in the past when I'd transfered, I'd get put into a group of three and the other two would do all the work while I just copied), but I wasn't prepared when I turned around.

Now, I wasn't the type of girl to go fawning over hot guys, but Mr. Mercer _seriously_ took my breath away. He had the most gorgeous pair of blue eyes that I'd ever seen, with brown hair that was all tousled and almost just as dark as his eyes, like he spent his day running his hands through it. I stood a little stupidly for a few seconds, before snapping myself out of my stupor and powerwalking over to Mr. Mercer. I made sure no eye contact was made (God help me if eye contact was made) and didn't say anything to Mr. Mercer at all as I sat down in the seat next to him.

I know the whole "chemistry in chemistry class" was done to death but there were weird sparks practically emitting off of Mercer. And for that exact reason, I avoided looking at him. Instead, I busied myself with taking out my binder and all my other essentials for class. I felt my throat getting dry, so I took a swig out of my water bottle before dropping it back into my bag. I kept my body positioned forward as I put my hands on top of the shared desk.

Wait, I didn't have anything else to do! I quickly picked up my pencil and began tapping it against the desk to give me something to do.

"Excuse me, but could you stop doing that?" I heard from beside me, and I nearly fell off my chair. Weirdly enough, Mercer didn't have an English accent, either. I carefully looked over at him, willing my face and neck to stay a normal colour. "I don't mean to be rude, but it's a little off putting."

"Sorry, it's what I do when I'm nervous," I stammered, wincing at my blurt.

"I'm guessing you're new here?" Mercer asked. "I'm Archer."

"Yeah, I'm new," I replied quickly. "I mean, my name's not _New_ , it's Lexi. Lexi Salvatore."

Right Lexi, time to shut up. I turned back to face the board, trying to tell him that I was done talking.

"You know, when most people meet for the first time, they shake hands," Archer said, and I winced as I turned to look over at him, and sure enough, his hand was outstretched towards me.

I gulped but put my hand in his to shake it. As soon as I did, I felt a surge of electricity flow through our hands, and at the same time, Archer and I let go of each other's hands. The both of us had freaked out expressions on our faces, leading me to believe that whatever had happened, he felt it too, but before I could ask anything, Mr. Brown began the lecture.

It took everything in me to focus on the lesson, but I managed to do it, though the entire time I was thinking about what happened. The "sparks flying" thing was horrible cliche, but what else could that have been? But, last time I checked, it wasn't _actual_ sparks. Maybe it was just static electricity.

I also couldn't help but notice the weird looks that the kids in the class were giving me. I just assumed that it was the fascination of a new girl, but I had a feeling there was more to the story.

But I never managed to ask Archer because when the bell rang, and I had just put my stuff away in my backpack and turned to my seat partner, Archer was already out the door.

Strange. I didn't ward off boys _that_ much.

Jenna was waiting for me outside of the classroom and picked up on my obvious bewilderment. "Hey, are you okay?"

I readjusted my backpack on my shoulder. "Yeah, I guess, but something weird just happened."

Again, Jenna just started walking, and again, I scrambled to catch up with her. "What happened? Did you blow something up? Because I've heard that that's common in Mr. Brown's class."

"No, nothing like that." I hesitated a bit. "Do you know Archer Mercer?"

Jenna half laughed, half scoffed. "Oh man, who _doesn't_ know Archer Mercer? He's like the guy every girl in this stupid school wants."

"You don't want him?" I asked.

She shook her head, her blonde locks flapping against her shoulders. "Nope. I find him rather displeasing, actually."

"'Rather displeasing'?" I repeated. "Did you really just say that?"

I immediately regretted the words at the faltering look on her face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. It's just, that's how my Uncle Klaus and his family always talks so I just-"

Jenna waved me off, a-strangely enough-smile on her face. "Don't worry about it. I read a lot of classic books, so sometimes I just slip into the speech of it. My parents both teach English literature at Sheridan University, and they always have books laying around."

"So, I haven't offended you?" I asked as a classroom came into view.

She shook her head. "Not at all. Believe it or not, Lexi, but I need you just as much as you need me."

"What do you mean?"

Jenna looked a little shy and embarrassed as she answered. "I don't have very many friends. None at all, really. I mostly just stick to myself, but ever since transferring here. I've never managed to make any good friends. That is, until I met you." We reached the classroom as a smile grew on Jenna's face. "I hope we can be good friends."

I beamed. "Me too."

* * *

The whole "Archer Mercer" thing completely went over my head as I dove into the world of Shakespeare. It turned out, Mrs. Cross wasn't about to give me any special treatment for being new and late to the semester, but luckily for me, Jenna was really good with Shakespeare and offered to help me.

Honestly I don't think I needed any more friends than Jenna.

It also disappeared in my head during Math. Math was disgusting in its own right, but at least I was good at what we were doing right now-Trigonometry.

In fact, I hadn't thought about Archer at all.

That is, until lunch rolled around.

Now generally speaking, cafeteria lunches were horrible. The food was disgusting, and the overall atmosphere of students bitching about people, cliques and students drowning in homework was very off putting.

However, the situation at John Adams High wasn't all that bad. It was certainly better than my school back in Idaho, where everyone competed for things. It took everything in me to not yell "OH MY GOD IT'S JUST A DEBATE FOR ENGLISH CLASS PLEASE GET OVER IT" on a daily basis.

Jenna and I found a small table in the back of the cafeteria, away from the whole crowd. I noticed that I got a few looks from a lot of the students when I sat down with Jenna, but I opted to ignore them as I chatted with her. What was everyone's deal with Jenna, anyways?

I ate the sandwich my parents sent me while Jenna downed her fruit punch. After we were done, we decided to go to the library so she could help me with Shakespeare because it would have been too hard for me to hear her talk over the sounds of about five hundred kids _and_ try and understand her speaking in Shakespeare.

We got up from the table so we could throw away our garbage but when I turned around to find a trash can, I collided with a very hard surface as food and soft drink spilled all over the front of my top.

I gasped in shock and surprise as I felt the food and liquid beginning to stain my clothes. I looked down at my ruined clothes, feeling like I had been shot.

The entire cafeteria had begun to erupt into laughter as I felt dread build up in me. Great. Humiliating myself in front of the entire school on my first day was something that I _needed_ to cross off of my bucket list.

I looked up to see who had splattered me, and I was surprised to see Archer, who had a puzzled but horrified look on his face. He snapped back into attention when he realized what he had done.

"Oh my God, I'm sorry!" He immediately said as I pulled my ruined tank top away from me a little to try and prevent stickiness. "Here, let me help you-"

"I think you've done enough, Mercer," Jenna said as she put her hands on my arms and pushed me around Archer. It was a good thing she had, too, because I felt like my legs were too stiff for me to move them on my own. I was still in a state of shock, at least until we got out of the cafeteria. That was when I shifted back into focus and looked down at my destroyed top. I fingered the fabric hopelessly. "What am I gonna do? I can't continue like this!"

"Don't go being overly dramatic," Jenna instructed as she grabbed my arms and began walking me again. We passed a few hallways until we got to her locker. She spun the combination and opened it. She reached in, grabbed a pink hoodie, and tossed it to me. "Here, you can just take off your shirt and put this on over top."

I caught the hoodie in my hands. "Are you sure?" I asked.

She nodded. "As long as you can get it back to me this week, yeah, no problem."

"Jenna, you are a _lifesaver_ ," I said to her as she led me to a bathroom.

"Not something I've been called before, but thank you," She said as we walked in.

I ran into a stall and stripped myself of the ruined shirt. I had Jenna wet some paper towels for me so I could clean off the stickiness of the soda that Archer had spilled all over me.

What...what a _jerk_! Now I knew why Jenna found him rather displeasing!

I shoved my shirt into my backpack and walked out of the stall. Unfortunately, once I had walked on, I heard giggling as the door to the bathroom opened, and that could only mean one thing: Mean girls.

I didn't know what it was, but wherever you went to school, you could _always_ tell who the mean girls of the school were by their giggling and by their shoes. Mean girls always wore high heels-I thought it had something to do with wanting to tower over people but honestly? Even _I_ felt powerful whenever I had to wear high heels.

I was surprised by the leader of the pack, evident by the way that she stood more in front of the other two girls who were behind her. Most mean girls had blonde hair, but this one had brown hair, much like my own, which was infuriating.

Their laughter immediately ceased when they caught sight of Jenna, and their faces turned from smiles to sneers. Jenna uncomfortably looked away as she cupped the back of her neck.

"Oops, didn't realize this was the _freak_ bathroom," the ringleader said, probably the first person I'd heard with a British accent, and the other girls giggled behind her.

I felt anger rise up in me. "Then why are you still in here?" I blurted, and I mentally started beating myself up.

The Ringleader turned to look at me, and her sneer transferred from Jenna to me. "And who are _you_?"

"Um...I'm new," I managed to stammer. "My name is Lexi."

The dark skinned girl behind the Ringleader nodded in realization. "It's the girl who got food dumped all over her," She said.

"Ah, Spaghetti Shirt," The Ringleader nodded in agreement as she eyed me up and down. I wasn't gonna lie, I felt violated. And _Spaghetti Shirt_? My only label had ever been _New Girl._ Next time I saw Archer, he was _dead_. "Well, I'm Erica. And, one thing you should know? Don't go bad mouthing the most powerful girl in school on your first day. Now, I'm feeling generous today, so I'll let you off with a warning. Oh, and never step foot in this bathroom again."

"Oh, who are you, the Queen?" I asked.

A grin spread across Erica's face. "Yes, I do, actually. So please see your way out of the castle, Cinderella."

I didn't even bother pointing out to Erica that Cinderella ended up marrying the prince and having the best life because it probably would have gone over her head. Instead, I sucked in a deep breath, grabbed Jenna's arm, and began walking towards the door.

"Oh, and Lexi?"

I turned around to face Erica.

"I'd lose the geeky sweater," She said, and her crew giggled.

I rolled my eyes at her as I pushed the door open and dragged Jenna out of the bathroom. I was practically stomping in the hallway and this time, Jenna had to keep up with _me_.

"Lexi, that was amazing!" Jenna said as she followed me. "No one's ever stood up for me like that."

"Trust me, I've met plenty of girls like Erica before," I said. "It was nothing I couldn't handle. No big deal."

"Yeah, it _was_ actually," Jenna said as she turned and stood in front of me, keeping me from walking. "You just put yourself on Erica's hit list. Just for being associated with me."

"My Uncle Klaus always said that if you had nothing nice to say, say it anyways because some people deserve to hear the bitter truth." I shrugged. "Besides I'd rather be associated with you than a bloodsucking monster."

I couldn't help but notice that Jenna flinched a little bit, but I ignored it in favour of looking behind me at the bathroom, where the vampire herself Erica was walking out with her crew. She caught my eye and shot me a look, and I could only imagine her tripping and falling flat on her face.

Just as I imagined it, Erica bumped into the other minion and lost her footing as she tumbled to the ground. A loud smacking sound echoed throughout the hallway as her face made contact with the floor. Immediately, blood began spewing out of her nose.

Jenna and I both gasped at the action. I looked over at Jenna, who was suddenly breathing really heavily. Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing out of her mouth. Quickly, she turned away from me and covered her mouth.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm just squeamish when it comes to blood," She said shakily. " _Really squeamish._ "

"Do you want to go to the nurse?" I asked. I looked back over to Erica, and her friends were picking her up from the ground and leading her down the hallway to where I assumed the nurse's office was.

Jenna turned back to look at me, and she looked fine. She shook her head. "I'll be okay. Let's just get to history class. I heard we have a new teacher."

"You're in luck," I said. "The new history teacher just so happens to be my mother."

* * *

" _That's_ your Mom?" Jenna asked as we peered into the history classroom. Lunch wasn't over just yet, and since we had fourth lunch, Mom was finishing up with her fourth period class. "But she looks so... _young_."

I shrugged a little as I watched Mom flip her hair over her shoulder as she turned around to write on the whiteboard. "The years have been good to her," I replied, using Mom's reasoning.

Mom just looked so natural in the teacher position as she lectured the seniors. It all came so naturally to her that it was hard to believe that this wasn't what she was originally planning on doing. According to Mom, just before Aunt Elena died, she was still in college and not really doing anything specific. Before Aunt Elena's accident, she told Mom that she always saw her becoming a history teacher, like Grandpa Alaric was (Grandpa Alaric was Mom, Aunt Elena, Aunt Caroline, and Aunt Bonnie's history teacher when they were in high school, and Grandpa Alaric had dated Great Aunt Jenna before she died in a freak accident), and Mom agreed to it, partly because Aunt Elena wanted her to but mostly because when Mom started studying to become a history teacher, she just fell in love with it.

The bell officially rung and the door opened to allow the students to come out so that the fifth period students could come on. Mom was erasing the whiteboard when Jenna and I walked in. She grinned brightly when she saw me. "Hi, Sweetie!"

"Mom!" I whispered harshly, looking around the room to make sure that no one had heard. So far, it was just Jenna and me in the class. "Do you remember our school rule?"

Wherever I ended up, Mom was somehow always the school's history teacher. It was weird, but helpful. Mom gave me a look. "Don't make public displays of affection," She said. "But I can't help it. It's too fun embarrassing you."

"And yet you get mad when Dad does it to you," I mumbled under my breath.

"I heard that."

She always did.

I looked over at Jenna. "Mom? This is Jenna. She's my new friend."

Mom's eyes brightened a little but softened at the same time. "I had an Aunt named Jenna." She cleared her throat a little as she turned to my friend. "Well, it's nice to meet _you_ , Jenna." Mom and Jenna shook hands.

"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Salvatore," Jenna said.

Mom turned towards me. "I heard about the cafeteria incident," She told me as she eyed the sweater that Jenna lent me.

"What?" I asked, my eyes bugging out. "How?"

"Honey, don't you know anything?" She asked. "Kids tweet and post and text _everything_."

"Great," I grumbled as I went over to a seat and plopped down in it. "My first day and I'm the laughing stock of the school. I'm not New Girl, anymore. I'm _Spaghetti Girl_. I didn't even see any spaghetti on my shirt!"

"It wasn't that noticeable, if it makes you feel better," Jenna offered.

"It doesn't."

"You're pessimistic, hasn't anyone ever told you that?"

"Some people say it's my best quality."

* * *

After a lecture on the Civil War and Mom telling me that she had a meeting after school and that I should find another way home, it was time for my own personal hell: PE.

Well techincally, I had a lot of personal hells, but PE was close to the number one spot.

It wasn't fair. Almost everyone in my family was super strong and fast and agile and then there was _me_ , who couldn't even hold a baseball bat properly.

We played badminton, and Jenna, bless her soul, made herself my partner so that i didn't have to do much. Jenna was super strong; her spikes were crazy fast.

"You're the size of a _pea_ ," I said as I eyed the petite blonde. "How are you so strong?"

"It's all muscle," She said as she patted her abdomen. "That's what riding a bike every day will do to you."

Unfortunately, Erica was in my gym class, but fortunately, her broken nose allowed her sit out. Personally, I thought she was okay enough to play, but I didn't dare say anything. However, I _did_ feel her gaze on me the entire time, which ended up in me getting so distracted that I hit Jenna multiple times. Even though I apologized relentlessly, the whacks barely bothered her. In fact, she didn't even _bruise_.

At the end of the day, Jenna and me won all of our matches, but the credit for that all went to Jenna. I didn't bother using the gross showers at the school, instead opting to shower when I got home. Jenna was right: it _was_ lucky that we had PE last.

I could still feel heat radiating off of me as we walked out of the school. Jenna pointed behind her to the bike rack. "I'm sorry I can't walk with you. My parents need me to be home right away, we have somewhere to be right after school."

I waved her off. After everything she'd done for me today, she could forget about walking me home. "It's fine. This part at least I know how to do."

Jenna gave me a wave as she made her way to the bike rack, and I pulled the hoodie closer to my skin. England in mid-October was _cold_ -I was freezing, despite the thin layer of sweat on my body.

I began the almost two mile walk back to my house when I heard a car beside me on the road beginning to slow down. Natural curiousity made me look over and my breath hitched when I saw Archer through the lowered window. I was a little startled to see him on what was the passenger side but then I remembered here in England that they drove on the opposite side of the road.

"I'm sorry about today," he apologized as he drove. "To make it up to you, I'll drive you home."

Uh, hello? Stranger danger? "After what happened today? No thanks."

"Come on, I _said_ I was sorry, Salvatore."

I stopped walking and spun on my heel to stare at him. "I'm now dubbed 'Spaghetti Girl' because of you, Mercer. 'New Girl' I can handle, but being nicknamed after a meal isn't what a girl wants." I turned and began walking again, hoping that I'd have the last word and that he'd leave me alone, but he kept following me.

"What if I said I could get the kids at school to not call you that anymore?" He asked.

"I'd call you a liar."

"You don't even know me and you're calling me a liar."

"You dumped food on me-I don't have to believe a single word you say." Besides, the weird feeling I felt around Archer was back, but it wasn't excitement. It was...dark. A little dangerous. It was like there was a sign behind Archer that said to run away from him.

"I'll leave you alone if you let me give you a ride home," He offered.

I stopped walking and turned to face him again. "You're not going to give up, are you?"

"Nope."

I huffed but made my way to the passenger side. "I swear to God, if you're actually kidnapping me, I will grab a hold of the steering wheel and crash us into a tree. I don't care if we both die."

"Nice to know."

I opened the door and slid into the car. Archer's car had the same weird feeling as Archer himself had, but I chose to ignore it as I slipped on my seatbelt.

Archer frowned at me as he eyed me, but he turned his attention back to the road as he began driving. "You've got water on your head."

"That, dear Mercer, would be sweat," I said as I settled into the seat.

"Please don't get sweat on my seat."

"No promises."

We were mostly quiet on the road, and I was grateful for that. The only occasional comment was me telling Archer which directions to take to get me home. Once he stopped in my driveway, his jaw dropped at the sight of the house. " _This_ is where you live?"

I shrugged a little as I eyed the house. "It's not _that_ impressive," I said, though it totally was. I was just trying to make Archer...awed? Annoyed? Jealous?

Why would Archer be jealous of a _house_?

A thought that was tugging at the back of my mind surfaced, and I was asking Archer the question before I could stop myself, "Why doesn't anybody like Jenna?"

Archer gave me a confused look. "Jenna Stewart? She ate a frog's legs during dissection last year and had to go to the hospital."

"First of all, ew," I said as I shuddered at the thought of Jenna Stewart-who would eat a _frog's leg_ -eating an animal for dissection. "Second of all, I meant Jenna Posen."

"Oh yeah, Erica mentioned that you were with her today," Archer said casually, though I felt a strange stabbing feeling when he mentioned Erica. Were they dating? Why did I care? "I don't know why people don't really like her."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "I mean, there has to be a reason. I get the whole Jenna Stewart thing, but why Jenna Posen? She seems perfectly normal to me."

"Yeah, I guess," Archer shrugged. "Kids here-kids in high school in _general_ -aren't accepting of people. Jenna came late into the semester, and no one became friends with her, I guess. I mean, she's a pretty isolated person. I haven't seen or head her try to make an effort to make friends, that is, until today."

"Do you know why Erica and her friends call her a freak?" I asked. "It seemed to hurt her feelings."

"Oh, Erica just hates when other people get more attention and are more prettier than her," Archer waved off. "And her friends just follow her every move. I've been waiting for the day where Erica gets sick and doesn't show up to school to see what her friends do."

I had to swallow the laugh that was building up in my chest. I took my seatbelt off and turned to look over at Archer. "If you think this is the part where I invite you inside, you've got another thing coming."

Archer laughed, a real, genuine laugh. "You're one strange girl."

Was that a good thing? Ugh, boys.

"I really am sorry about earlier today, Lexi," Archer said.

"Get me a new shirt and we'll call it even."

Archer laughed again as I opened the door and got out of the car. "See you tomorrow, Salvatore."

I saluted him. "Whatever, Mercer."

He then drove off, and I couldn't help the tingly feeling that was forming throughout my body. But there was still something in me that was telling me to stay away from Archer. Should I ignore my gut instincts? More often times than not, gut instincts have been proven to be true.

I thought back to Archer as he laughed when I joked about him coming into my house.

Maybe I could ignore it for now.

* * *

 **TBC...**

 **I've been loving this story! Let me know if you have been too! Next chapter we'll get to hear from some old family of Lexi's!**

 **REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	3. Ghost Story

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I only own my OC, and any other characters and plotline I make up along the way!

 **Author's Note:** I'm excited for this story!

Also, I'm just gonna go ahead and make Bamon canon for this story.

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"How was the first day of school?" Mom asked over dinner. She brought our dinner-grilled chicken with vegetables- over to the table in paper plates.

"Good. Question though: why are we eating using plastic utensils?" I asked as I held up my plastic knife and fork.

"Because until we get a dishwasher installed, we're using plastic stuff," Mom answered as brought over paper cups.

"Mom, this house is like four hundred years old," I said. "I don't think you can install something like that into it."

"Just watch me," Mom taunted as she went over to our fridge to grab the jug of water.

I leaned over so that I could whisper to Dad, "Do you ever stop to think 'hey, I married that girl'?"

Dad shrugged a little. "After over twenty years you get used it."

"I heard that," Mom said in a sing song voice as she sat down next to Dad. "Now, we're not talking about _my_ problems, we're talking about _yours_."

"What's my problem?" I asked, confused.

"Do you want to talk about Spaghetti Shirt?" Mom asked as she cut into her chicken.

I practically choked on my steamed vegetables.

"Wait, who is Spaghetti Shirt?" Dad asked.

I huffed as I pointed to myself. "I am, Dad. And as we speak, that shirt is being washed, as well as a sweater that my new friend was nice enough to lend to me."

"Do I have to beat someone up?" Dad asked. "Because I will do that, if I have to."

"No, Dad, you don't have to do that," I told him. " _But_ what you _can_ do is buy me a car."

Mom and Dad both laughed. "Nice try," Dad said. "No one owns a car in London. There's really no point."

"Then how am I supposed to survive the nearly two mile walk to school when Mom can't drive me?"

"Invest in a bike?" Mom suggested.

"And get exercise? No thanks."

"How about rollarblades?" Dad offered.

"I'm not coordinated enough for those."

"That's true."

"Dad! You're not supposed to _agree_ with me!"

"What if it's the truth?"

"You're still not supposed to say it! That's what Uncle Klaus says."

"Oh, Uncle Klaus only says that because he hates getting his feelings hurt," Mom cut in. She pointed her plastic fork at me. "Oh, and Matt called me. Why haven't you called him yet?"

"Why do I have to? It's not like he's my _Dad_ dad."

"Dad and I may be your parents, but you're still Matt's first born," Mom said. "And you mean a lot to him because of that."

"Technically Rachel's his first born," I pointed out.

"Rachel's the one he had with his actual wife and who he kept," Mom went on. "But like it or not, you are still his offspring."

I rolled my eyes a little. "I'll call him when I call him."

"Lexi, don't talk to your mother like that," Dad slightly scolded.

I sighed. "Fine. I'll call him after dinner."

"Good," Mom said. "Have you gotten anything for Rachel for her birthday?"

I groaned. "Do I have to?"

"She's your sister, Lex," Dad reminded me. "Of course you do."

"Technically she's not," I pointed out.

"Technically, she is," Mom added. "You two share Matt's DNA."

"Why didn't you and Dad try to have more kids?" I asked. "I mean, I know it'd be hard the first time, but-"

"We didn't have any more kids because a) it all has to do with Dad's sperm count-"

"Whoa! Can we not discuss my sperm at the dinner table?" Dad interjected.

"And b)," Mom continued without missing a beat. "You're already a handful."

"Wow, Mom, really feeling the love," I joked.

She gave me a smile. "You know you're my number one."

We made a bit more idle talk as we ate but when I got up to throw out my dishes, Mom grabbed my wrist. "Honey, wait a second."

"Ohhhhkay," I said slowly as I sat down and faced them. "What's up?"

"You've been such a good sport all these years when my job moves us," Dad began. "So, I managed to talk my boss into letting us stay in London until you've finished high school. Then, if you go off to college and we have to move again, you can stay to finish your education."

I burst into a huge smile. "Really? We're really gonna stay here until I graduate?"

Mom nodded. "Really."

"Oh my God, yay!" I squealed as I jumped out of my seat and ran to hug them. "I can make permanent friends! I can get a boyfriend! _We can get a dog_!"

"Hang on, no one said _anything_ about a boyfriend," Dad protested.

"Or a dog," Mom added.

But I ignored the both of them in favour of throwing out my dishes and running up to my room to celebrate.

* * *

"How's school?" Matt asked when I called him after dinner.

"Oh, you know," I said. "School."

"You know, Rachel and Aaron are a lot more enthusiastic whenever I ask them about school."

"Given the fact that they're ten and eight, I'd say school hasn't totally crushed their dreams," I replied.

Matt laughed on the other line. "How's London treating you? Better than Idaho?"

"So much better," I agreed. "How's Aunt Sophie?"

"She's doing great," Matt answered. "She just got a new job coaching the local girl's soccer team. She's determined to take them to the top."

I smiled. "I'll be rooting from London."

"Thanks. I'll tell her that."

Conversations with Uncle Matt got awkward very fast, which was why I was against calling him. I huffed a little as I said, "I made a new friend!"

"Already? That's great," Uncle Matt said. "What's their name? What are they like?"

"Her name's Jenna," I answered. "She's a little weird, but I like her. No one else at the school seems to like her, though. I keep getting weird looks from people when I was with her."

"Ignore them. High school kids have no power unless you give it to them."

"Words to live by, I'm sure."

"Very good words," Matt said. I could hear a far off voice, and Matt scratchily said, "Okay, I'll be there in a minute." His voice became clearer when he said, "Oh, Rachel needs me to help her with her math homework. I should go."

"Yeah, we all know how hard fifth grade math problems can be."

"Oh, I talked to your Mom about your birthday, and I think that we'll be able to make it this year."

"It's not every day your technical daughter turns seventeen."

"Goodbye, Lexi."

"Bye, Matt," I said as I hung up. I blew air out of my lips as I tossed my cell phone to the side and threw myself backwards so that I was laying on my bed. I looked up at the dark blue ceiling. I had picked a fairly large room, since this place used to be a hotel, but I hadn't had the time to decorate it. I had finished my homework before my parents came home for dinner, so I guess I had a bit of time to set up a little. After all, I could put things up without having to think of taking them down after a few months.

I flipped on this age old radio I found and began setting my room up, starting with putting proper sheets and blankets on the bed. I didn't have much but what I mostly had was pictures. I'd gone back to visit Mystic Falls by myself a couple years back (because Mom and Dad couldn't get away from work), and I made sure to get lots of pictures of my family when I went there. I stayed with Uncle Ivan and Aunt Caroline, though Uncle Damon insisted that I stayed with him and Aunt Bonnie for at least one night. According to Aunt Bonnie, after Aunt Elena died and when I was born, I was all that Uncle Damon cared about for a while because Aunt Elena was so excited for Mom to have kids and he knew that it would have meant so much to Aunt Elena.

When I put up one of the few pictures I had of Aunt Elena, I heard footsteps outside of my room. I poked my head outside of the door. "Mom? Dad?" I called out, but no one answered. I was going to pull my head back in and do some more work before bed when I heard the footsteps _again_.

Now, what a normal person would do was grab their flashlight and try to look and see what happened.

But I was a _smart_ person. When I lived in Germany, I became friends with a couple of German girls who were obsessed with horror movies. I don't know if you've seen German horror movies, but they were downright _terrifying_. I had learned my lesson very well from them so instead of investigating, I shut and locked my door and jumped into bed as I opened up a book on my iPad.

I fell asleep sprawled against my bed and listening to the radio, my bed cluttered with pictures and my iPad sitting on my lap.

* * *

When I went to school the next day (Mom was kind enough to leave home a little later than she was supposed to to drive me to school), I prepared myself for Spaghetti Girl comments, but surprisingly, everyone-and I did mean everyone- was greeting me by my first name.

"Did you do something online so that everyone knows your name?" Mom asked as we walked towards the front doors of the school. I shook my head in answer. Nothing as far as I was concerned.

When I got to my first period chemistry class, I was suddenly hit with the reminder that I would be seeing Archer again. The reason that that realization came was because Archer was sitting in his seat, looking through his binder.

I gulped as I shuffled forward and took my seat next to him. He didn't look up to acknowledge me but after I took out all my stuff, he turned his head to me and said, "Good morning."

I looked over at him as I said, "Let me guess: nobody calling me Spaghetti Shirt was your doing?"

Archer shrugged a bit. "I told you I could do it. Now you can't call me a liar."

I huffed as I turned back to face the front, determined not to give into his dreamy eyes...

That was enough of _that_.

I heard some whispers behind me and turned my head to see two people sitting three rows behind me sharply look up, halting their conversation. I furrowed my eyebrows but couldn't question it further because Mr. Brown had started the lesson.

Jenna was waiting outside for me when I walked out. I held out her pink hoodie. "One freshly washed, smells like lavender sweater. Thanks again for letting me borrow it."

"No problem," She said as she accepted it. "How was chemistry?"

"Confusing," I answered. "Not in the sense that the class was confusing, but what was going on was."

"What was going on?" Jenna asked as we walked to English.

"People kept staring at me," I told her. "I mean, I get the shock of a new girl, but this wasn't new girl stares. Usually people get that out of their systems my first day. Second day people start ignoring me when they realized I was nothing special."

"That's weird," Jenna agreed. She bit her bottom lip when we came to the front of the classroom, and I knew that wasn't a good sign.

"Jenna, do you know something?" I asked her. "Jenna?"

She sighed a little. "I didn't want to tell you on your first day because I thought it'd freak you out."

"What'd freak me out?"

She grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the way a little. "Did you wonder why there was an empty seat in chemistry class when lab partners are set up at the beginning of the semester?"

"I did, actually. What's up with that?"

"Just before you moved here, a girl-Christine-died," Jenna whispered, and I felt my stomach drop. "Which is why there is an empty seat in chemistry."

"Are you telling me that the reason that people are giving me weird stares is because I'm sitting in a _dead girl's_ seat?" I whisper shouted.

She winced. "Yeah. Look, we'll be late for English, but I promise to explain everything during lunch." And with that, she strolled inside of the classroom.

* * *

I barely paid attention in Math (which was going to bite me in the ass later) which was why the period went by so fast. When I caught up with Jenna in the cafeteria, I grabbed her arm and shoved her in the seat that we were at yesterday. "Please spill! What's up with the dead girl?"

"Christine Perry," Jenna began as she took out a container of tomato soup. "She was one of the most popular girls in school, but she got into a car accident. It was weird though, because while her car crashed into the tree, there was evidence that Christine had gotten out of the car and stumbled out. Then, she got attacked by an animal, but animal attacks are uncommon in London. At least, in the area that Christine was in when she died."

"So you don't think that she was killed by an animal?" I asked in confusion.

Jenna shook her head. "I don't know what I think. But what I _do_ know is that this isn't the first animal attack that's happened. There were reports of it back in the summer. My Dad is friends with the local chief of police who tells him this kind of stuff when he's just the right amount of drunk."

"What else could be attacking someone so badly that they died?" I thought aloud.

Jenna shrugged a little, though the air around her shifted. "I don't know. Did you get the hang of Shakespeare last night?"

I groaned as I shook my head. "No! I have absolutely no idea what he's saying. Apparently, 'Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo' doesn't mean 'Romeo where the hell are you?'"

Jenna laughed at me. "It's okay, I can help you."

"Thanks," I smiled as we got up to go to the library.

But all I could think about was the seat of the dead girl that I was occupying in chemistry.

* * *

Tonight's dinner was pizza, and Mom was serving everything on paper plates. "Jules, we can't live like this forever," Dad pointed out as Mom set the box on the table.

"Finally! You're starting to see sense!" I exclaimed.

Mom gave Dad a look. "We can certainly live like this for a while, or you can learn to live on the couch every night."

Dad hesitated before looking over at me. "I think we can live like this forever."

"Pushover," I said pointedly at him when Mom went to go grab the paper cups.

"Rebel child," He retorted.

"Lexi's insult was better," Mom said as she took her regular seat next to Dad. I would have thought that all these years of moving around and teaching would wear Mom out, but she looked as perfect as the day that she and Dad got married.

Dad flipped the box open-half was plain cheese, the other half had green peppers, onions, and red peppers- and we all reached in to grab some food for us.

"How was school?" Dad asked as he put two slices of veggie pizza on to his plate.

"Okay, I guess," I answered as I grabbed two cheese. I cleared my throat a little as I brought up Christine. "Did you know a girl at my school died just before we moved here?"

"No," Mom answered after she was finished chewing and swallowing. "That's horrible. Do you know what happened to her?"

"Jenna told me that she got attacked by an animal, but she doesn't think it's an animal," I said as I bit into my own pizza.

I didn't miss the brief exchanged between my parents as they looked to each other in mild fear and knowing. "What does she think it was?" Dad asked cautiously.

I shrugged a little. "I don't know. She wouldn't tell me."

"How did you find this out?" Mom asked as she poured herself some 7UP.

"I sit in her spot in chemistry class," I responded. "I kept getting weird looks from the kids in my class, so I asked Jenna and she thinks that's why they look at me funny."

"That's curious," Dad commented, and then changed the subject about something that happened at work.

"Yeah," I agreed, but I knew there was something up.

* * *

I heard the same footsteps outside of my bedroom around the same time as last night. I poked my head out the door again and looked both ways. "Dad, if you're trying to scare me, I am not afraid to pepper spray you," I warned, but when no one responded, I brought my head back in and shut and locked the door once more.

I turned around and jumped when I saw the cat that was sitting on my window sill. I was lucky that I hadn't screamed, or Dad would have busted in here and broken my lamp like he had done in Romania when I was watching a horror movie.

It was weird. I had a stare off with the cat. Normal cats would flee as soon as you saw them, but it challenged me as I held its stare. I walked over to my window. The cat moved over a little as I opened the window. I continued to stare at it until I sighed a little. "Do you have an owner?" I asked, not expecting a response. I checked it for a collar or tags but there was nothing. I felt bad just leaving it out there. Maybe I could keep him, just until I found out if it had an owner or not. Besides, I was now fully in the clear to set down roots. "It's kinda cold out. Do you want to stay in here with me for the night until I can figure out what to do with you?"

The cat meowed before leaping into my room, landing softly on my bed. I laughed a little as I shut the window. "Sure, just make yourself at home," I said to him-was it a him?- as he curled himself into a ball. I shook my head a little as I turned on the TV I had set up in the room for a background noise as I jumped onto my bed and pulled out my homework.

The cat purred softly as he watched the TV that was playing the TV show "Sabrina the Teenage Witch". I tilted my head a little as I said, "I need to call you something. How about Salem? Like him?" I nodded my head to the cat on the TV.

The cat, of course, didn't answer me, but I nodded my head. "Yeah, I think I'm gonna call you Salem. Well, Salem, you've got to stay quiet and hidden until I can explain you to Mom and Dad."

No answer again as he closed his eyes, falling asleep. "Right, you must be tired," I said as I bit the cap of my pen. I shook my head before returning to my chemistry homework.

I tried to focus on it but not even the chemical formula for sodium bicarbonate could distract me from the sound of footsteps outside of my room that I chose to ignore.

* * *

I had settled into school quite nicely, definitely a lot better than I had in the past. I guess it was because I knew that I would be staying here, so I had a reason to not make myself look a fool.

Technically by Erica's definition, I was a fool for hanging out with Jenna. Even though no one was calling me Spaghetti Shirt, that didn't mean that everyone was suddenly my friend. Erica still had the whole school wrapped around her little finger.

To my unfortunate delight, Archer was one of the only people (or guys, really) completely immune to her. Well, not _completely_ -even _I_ knew that Erica was a really hot girl. She would sometimes show up to the classroom before class started and flirt with him a bit and some days he'd play along and some days he'd tell her to back off. Archer Mercer was a very confusion boy, which was exactly one of the reasons that I wanted to ignore him.

Damn him being so cute. God did a good number on him.

I tried doing a little research into Christine's death (just to feel a little better about the stares I was still getting from people in my chemistry class) but I couldn't find anything other than what Jenna already told me. All news outlets and the police department ruled the death as an animal attack.

I tried not to let it bother me but it was Jenna and my parents' reaction that wouldn't let me let it go.

The footsteps outside of my door had stopped too, so I didn't feel the need to mention it to my parents. It probably wasn't even footsteps at all. It was probably just my imagination cooking things up because I was living in an old hotel. That had to be it.

I held out my BLT to Jenna at my locker a week later. "Do you want a bite?"

She shook her head, looking up from where she was tying her loose shoelace. "I'm good but thanks."

I shrugged a little as I bit into the sandwich. I didn't have time for breakfast this morning, so Mom made me a quick BLT (one of the only things that she couldn't possibly mess up) and handed it to me so that we could get to school on time. Before I left the house, I left a piece of bacon and a small bowl of water for Salem. I knew that feeding animals people food was a bad idea, but Mom had a staff meeting after school today so hopefully I could sneak off to the pet store and buy some cat food. If not, he'd have to settle for the tuna in our fridge until I _could_ get my hands on some food for him. Either way, Salem wasn't necessarily a house cat-a lot of the time he'd disappear and turn back up at night seemingly full. Hey, as long as Mom and Dad didn't find out yet and he was eating, I was fine with that.

"What class do you have first, Jenna?" I asked after I swallowed.

"Law," She answered as she stood up. "I heard there's some big experiment going on in Brown's class. Are you excited?"

I shrugged a little. "Mr. Brown likes to make a big deal out of lots of things. But I'm a little nervous."

"Why?" Jenna asked.

I hesitated. While Jenna didn't exactly support my stupid growing feelings for Archer, she didn't disapprove of them, either. "This is the first experiment where Archer and I really have to _interact_. The most we've talked is a few remarks before Mr. Brown starts the lesson."

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Jenna assured me as the bell rang. I crammed the rest of my sandwich into my mouth and gave Jenna a wave in goodbye as I headed towards Mr. Brown's classroom. Of course, Archer was already there, so I just slid into my seat and took out my binder and a pencil.

"Morning, Salvatore," He greeted.

"Morning, Mercer," I responded like I did every morning.

Archer looked at me funnily. "All right, I'll bite. What's up with you?"

I gave him a look. "Nothing."

"Come on, don't give me that," He dismissed. "You've been looking freaked out in this class ever since your second day here. What gives?"

Archer noticed that I was freaked out in chemistry? Moreover, he cared?

I huffed a little. "Looks like people failed to mention the dead girl who sat in this seat before me."

He winced a little. "Someone told you about Christine?"

I nodded. "Yup. Hence the 'freaking out' part. I just feel a little uneasy over sitting in the chair of a dead girl."

"Well, ghosts don't exist, so you don't have to worry about Christine haunting that seat," Archer assured me as Mr. Brown walked into the classroom and demanded the attention of the class.

"All right, class! Today, we're going to be doing H2O and magnesium," Mr. Brown said.

"That's ridiculously easy," Archer whispered to me. "Do you think Mr. Brown's hungover?"

I wasn't really around people who drank to the point where they were seriously hungover in the morning, but I'd seen movies and by the look on Mr. Brown's face... "Oh yeah, definitely."

We got everything that we needed and put on our goggles on. "Your goggles are way too big for your face," Archer commented as he pointed to them.

I gave him a look. "As if yours makes you look like Einstein."

"I've always strived to look like him," Archer joked as he measured the amount of magnesium we needed. He gestured to his head. "I tried growing my hair out like him but my Mom didn't like it so I had to stop."

"I'm sure the look would've been great on you," I allowed as poured water into the beaker.

All of a sudden, the beaker started glowing and shaking as it began reacting with whatever was in the beaker. But it couldn't've because Archer and I hadn't put anything into the beaker yet...

Archer must have realized that we could be in serious danger because eyes widened as he yelled to everyone in the class, "Get down!"

But idiotic me didn't get down. I was too mesmerized by what was going on in the beaker and the impossibility of it. I wasn't down on the ground until I felt a hard push into my side as the beaker finally exploded.

I groaned a little as I was knocked to the ground and was surprised to see Archer laying down on top of me, shielding my body from the flying glass and product of the explosion with this. My eyes widened a little as we waited for the explosion to finish. Once it did, he looked over to where our table was at the remnants of the explosion. Then he looked back at me. "Are you okay?" He asked as he got off of me. He offered me his hands, and I took them as I stood up.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered as I looked at the beaker.

Mr. Brown ran over to us. "Are you kids okay? What happened?"

Archer and I shook our heads. "We don't know. Lexi just added the water into the beaker and it exploded. We didn't add the magnesium or anything."

Mr. Brown furrowed his eyebrows. "That's very odd. Well, you two should get down to the nurse and get checked out just in case."

I grabbed my backpack as I followed Archer out the door, my eyes not leaving the spot where our beaker was before it exploded.

Something wasn't right. The beakers were washed right after usage whenever something was put into it. What could have made that happen?

I think I needed to start looking for answers. And I know just who to help me.

* * *

 **TBC...**

 **Really excited for the plans for this story!**

 **REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


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